Winchester'S 6-1 triumph away to Trojans was the shock result of the season - and one which has bowled Trojans off the top of the Hampshire/Surrey Regional League.

Undefeated in their previous eight starts and top dogs since day one, Trojans were hot favourites to beat a Winchester side that had conceded 14 goals in losing its last three games and hadn't won since October 26.

Winchester turned the form book upside down, with Alex Bennett and Nick Tout each scoring a brace as Trojans crashed to their heaviest defeat for some time.

The result, which Winchester thoroughly deserved, dropped Trojans to third, three points adrift of Bournemouth, the new leaders, who visit second-placed Woking on Saturday.

For a while it looked as though it might be the continuation of the same old story for Winchester.

"We created a number of pretty good chances early on but, as has been the case for a number of weeks, we missed them all," lamented player-coach Merijn van Willigen.

"Against Trojans the difference came in the shape of the forward combination of Nick Tout and Alex Bennett, who found each other with increasing ease and proved a little too hot to handle."

It was the Bennett-Tout duo who carved out a two-goal lead for Winchester before the richly promising Kevin Boniface drilled home a third.

Colin French pulled a neatly constructed goal back for Trojans, but Tout re-established Winchester's three-goal advantage from a penalty flick, awarded after a shot struck Mark Ellis on the foot.

As Trojans chased the game, so Winchester hit them on the break - Richard Penrose rifling home a fifth before Bennett made it 6-1 late on.

"Winchester played well and deserved to win," conceded Trojans skipper Campbell Williams, who has sent a 'must do better' note to his squad who visit Hamble Old Boys on Saturday.

Hamble will be picking up the pieces themselves after a 5-0 mauling against Bournemouth, who are gunning for promotion into the South Premier League.

"We had a pretty mediocre season last year, but finished runners-up the two seasons before that," said skipper Greg Turpin after the Hamble win.

Bournemouth, 1-0 up at the break through Tom Herring, rattled the Old Boys in the second half, with Charlie Hayward scoring twice, and Pete Larcombe hitting the target in between Ali Paul's eighth goal of the season.

Andover went close to upsetting Woking's promotion challenge, throwing everything forward in an unsuccessful attempt to stave off a 2-1 defeat by the Surrey club at Chalton.

Despite playing some decent hockey which belied their bottom-rung status, Andover found themselves 2-0 down.

But a slick move, initiated by Jasper Slieman-Hiscock, led to Andy Winnett being denied a certain goal by a raised Woking stick.

Rob West reduced the arrears from the penalty, but despite dominating the closing stages, Andover were unable to pinch an equaliser their overall display deserved.

Who will be the Daily Echo's hockey player-of-the-month for November?

Trojans midfielder Simon Lucas won it in October. Now it's time for local clubs to send in their nominations once again.

Fordingbridge-based equipment specialists Cricket-Hockey.co.uk will again be linking up with Kookaburra to present a brand-new stick to the top player in November.

Nominations should be sent to Mike Vimpany using the e-mail link above.